Indo-Persian Talwar Swords

The talwar (or tulwar) is believed to have originated with the Rajputs of Northern India and spread from there. It is arguably the sword most identified with India, although neighboring countries have also used it for centuries, and India itself has a bewildering array of edged weapon styles.

Both these swords have the typical all metal talwar style hilts with stubby quillons and narrow langets extending down the sides. Most prominent is the disk shaped pommel (katori) showing a flower (phool) at the top. The tang button in the middle has a small hole to thread a silk string through, which wrapped around the wrist to prevent loss in combat. The blade tang is customarily secured to the hilt by a resin made from the peepal tree, as seems to be the case here (see last photo).

The blade on the longer sword is the traditional talwar shaped blade. The first several inches of blade begins straight then makes a pronounced curve toward the end. The width of the blade stays the same till the last few inches before it comes to a point. This particular sword has two fullers, although the number of fullers when present seems to vary on these swords. The sharp sword edge stops about 1 ¾” short of the hilt. According to one source, this “khazana”, similar to a ricasso on a European sword, allows the index finger to wrap around in front of the quillon as desired (not always a good idea I think).

The shorter sword blade is more similar to another Indo-Persian sword type, the samsheer, although the hilt remains in talwar form. The width of the blade begins tapering from the hilt to the point, and is sharp all the way back to the hilt. Both blades appear to be rather crudely hand forged, which along with the plain iron hilts seems to indicate an “armory sword” issued for use by the lower ranks. Many privately owned talwar were very high quality.

According to a few internet sources, the scabbards are a typical WWI era pattern of khaki fabric stretched around a wooden form with sheet iron drags. The bulge a few inches below the throat of the scabbard held a frog (belt holder) in place. I tested the fabric which does not glow under a black light, and I lit fire to a few loose strands of thread, which burned instead of melted. Both tests indicate organic, rather than modern synthetic fabric.

Although I am not an expert, (much of this research comes from E. Jaiwant Paul’s “By My Sword and Shield: Traditional weapons of the Indian warrior”) I believe these swords date no later than the late 19th or early 20th century.

I had been keeping an eye out for an authentic but inexpensive Indian talwar to display along with my British Army in India items. Then a few years ago I saw these two swords incorrectly identified and categorized on eBay as Japanese swords. The picture was poor quality, but the starting price was low. I took a chance and bid a price that I thought I could re-sell them for if they ended up being junk souvenir swords. Again I got lucky.